National Archives of Australia

In city

The National Archives occupy what was Canberra’s first GPO, opened in 1927. The permanent exhibition, Memory of a Nation, highlights the extent and diversity of the treasures contained within the National Archives’ collection, including ASIO surveillance photos, wooden balls used in National Service ballots to conscript young men to the Vietnam War and an 1897 draft of the Constitution complete with Australia’s first prime minister Edmund Barton’s edits. Learn how to search for war service and migration records to trace your family history. The Federation Gallery displays Australia’s ‘birth certificate’– Queen Victoria’s Royal Commission of Assent and Australia’s original Constitution. Queen Victoria Tce, Parkes; (02) 6212 3600; open 9am–5pm daily; admission free.